Maid Gaed to the Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: "The maid's gaed to the mill by night, sae wanton... That she should hae her corn ground, mill and multure free." The miller's man obliges her. When she has a child "Her mother baid her cast it oot." "Her faither baid her keep it in," and she does.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: sex childbirth bastard mother father miller money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
DT, MAIDMILL*
Greig/Duncan7 1436, "The Miller and the Maid" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 39, #4 (1995), p, 38, "The Maid Gaed Tae the Mill" (1 text, 1 tune, Ewan MacColl's version, supposedly from his father)
David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 148-149, "The Maid Gaed to the Mill"
Roud #2575
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Maid Gaed to the Mill" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It Was a Mayde of Brenten Arse" (theme: a miller trading work for sex)
cf. "The Miller and the Lass" (theme: sex and a miller; grinding corn as the metaphor)
cf. "Miller Tae My Trade" (theme: sex and a miller)
cf. "The Miller o' Drone" (theme: sex and a miller; grinding corn as the metaphor)
cf. "The Besom Maker" (theme: sex and a miller; grinding corn as the metaphor)
NOTES [143 words]: The wantonness of millers is proverbial -- and songs of a miller trading work for sex is ancient. There is a song from the sixteenth century about it, indexed as "It Was a Mayde of Brenten Arse."
Chaucer played with the theme indirectly in "The Reeve's Tale, plus there is his description of his miller (see Larry D. Benson, general editor, The Riverside Chaucer, third edition, Houghton Mifflin, 1987 (based on F. N. Robinson, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, which is considered to be the first and second editions of this work), p. 32; The General Prologue, lines 560-562):
He waas a jangler and a goliardeys,
And that was moost of synne and harlotries.
Wel koude he stelen corn and tollen thries...
i.e.
He was a teller of bawdy stories and a buffoon
And that was most of sin and obscenity/harlotry.
Well could he steal corn and take his toll thrice. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcTMGTTM

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